Distance and Humor; The Art of Thomas Rowlandson

Abstract

'WE KNOW COMPARATIVELY LITTLE about Thomas Rowlandson's life. Among surviving documents we have only a will, two letters, and some brief accounts by friends. What little we do know suggests a gregarious and generally likable but one possessed of a certain emotional economy in relations with others. We know, for instance, that though he had the reputation of being something of a sensualist, he remained unmarried and perhaps unattached.' A congenial friend and an enthusiastic carouser, he was also apparently unusually reserved about his past and personal life. Indeed when his obituary came to be written, there was strikingly little even in the way of hearsay information available.2 Two stories, in particular, come to mind as illustrations of Rowlandson's capacity for emotional detachment. Both are mentioned by Henry Angelo in his Memoirs, one of the few sources of information about the artist. The first tells of Rowlandson's reaction when, having been robbed and failing to identify his assailant among a group of suspects, he recognized one of them as a man wanted for another crime. I have been the means of hanging one man, he is

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